Mississippi State Men’s Basketball falls to No. 8 Kentucky
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The Mississippi State Bulldogs lost another game in SEC play, this time on the road at No. 8 Kentucky 90-77.
At halftime, it was apparent that Wednesday was not the night for the Dawgs even after starting the second half strong on a 14-2 run. Kentucky (13-3, SEC 3-1) just looked and played like the better team throughout the night.
MSU (12-5, SEC 1-3) normally walks into games with one of the best defenses in the country, but against high-power offenses it seems to struggle in many aspects. That was on display during the recent loss against Alabama and now against UK.
The Wildcats were able to attack the signature zone of head coach Chris Jans at will and had no issues finding ways to score. They finished the game shooting 56 percent from the field and only turned the ball over 10 times.
This wasn't due to the effort of Tolu Smith who finished with 26 points, only two off of his career high. In the first half, Smith was shut out but started to find his ground in the second. He was able to get to his spots and shine while others struggled to get going.
One of the others was MSU freshman guard Josh Hubbard, who had his first off night and it was costly.
Hubbard came into the game being named SEC Freshman of the Week but his freshman counterpart, Rob Dillingham, put up the better performance finishing with 16 points off the bench. Meanwhile, the star point guard went 1-for-11 from the field and 1-for-9 from 3-point range. Had he hit just some of his shots like his normal self then the game could have had an entirely different feel and outcome.
Another player who shined in the loss was Trey Fort. He started his season off strong shooting well from behind the arc but after his first two games, he fell into a major shooting slump. In Lexington, he seemed to regain some of the shooting ability that he flexed earlier in the season finishing with 13 points shooting 5-for-10 from the field.
Mississippi State will look to bounce back against Vanderbilt (5-11, SEC 0-4) at home in a potential get-right game against the Commodores. MSU will look to use it as the team prepares for more tough games traveling to Florida (Jan. 24) and coming back home to face No. 13 Auburn (Jan. 27) in the following week.
